As exodus continues, one Owl offers commitment

In the wake of Monday night’s announcement that Rice all-conference forward Arsalan Kazemi plans to transfer, the last remaining veteran holdover, Tamir Jackson, said he remains committed to the program.

Jackson, a senior guard, sent out a series of tweets:

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Coach Ben Braun declined further comment when reached Monday night. In an interview last week, Braun had this to say about the number of players leaving Rice and nationally during the offseason.

“We’re going to address this. If this is a trend in college basketball, we’re going to make sure we’re not part of it. Do I want to fix college basketball? Yes.
But I want to fix Rice first.”

“I’m disappointed because we’ve done so many positive things. As we evaluate the program this is the one area that I’m very disappointed in. When you’re building a program you want stability. That’s something we really have to work on and get back.
We’ve made such strides. With all the good things we’re doing we don’t want to stumble – and we did.”

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Last week, Braun said he received word about a players-only meeting, called by the team’s two seniors, Jackson and Kazemi, and called it positive.

“It was about staying together and being focused,” Braun said.

As recent as last week, Kazemi had been in the gym working out and preparing for the upcoming season, including working with former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy. It’s unclear what caused a change of heart, but it should be noted that two of his closest friends – center Omar Oraby, his roommate, and former assistant coach Marco Morcos – have left this offseason. Morcos left the program after his contract was not renewed.

It should also be noted that Morcos was heavily involved in the recruiting process of most, if not all, of last year’s freshman class that has basically left, including point guard Dylan Ennis (Villanova), forward Jarelle Reischel (Rhode Island) and forward Ahmad Ibrahim (turned professional overseas). Another player he was heavily involved in the recruitment of was center Omar Oraby (Southern California). Both Oraby and Morcos are from Egypt.

Morcos accompanied Oraby on a visit to the USC campus last week, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Moving forward, the Owls have nine remaining scholarship players on the roster. Braun said last week that the team will add a few walk-ons but there are no immediate plans to add any scholarship players “at this late stage.”